Publication Order of Standalone Plays

Cormac McCarthy is one of the well known authors of America who has written a number of successful novels in his writing career based on the Southern Gothic, post-apocalyptic, western, and Literature & Fiction genres. Other than being a novelist, he is also a popular playwright and a screenwriter. He has written around ten prominent novels in total throughout the multiple genres, which have helped McCarthy to win a number of prestigious awards. He has won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the James Tait Memorial Prize for his novel The Road. One of his other novels titled No Country for Old Men was adapted into a movie of the same name in the year 2007. This film went on to win a total of 4 Academy Awards in different categories. Author McCarthy has also won the National Book Award as well as the National Book Critics Award by the United States for his excellent contribution in literature. A few other books written by have also been made into motion pictures.

One of the earliest novels written by author McCarthy, Blood Meridian was listed among the top 100 books published between the years 1923 and 2005 the Time magazine. It was also jointly placed as the best fiction novel published in America in the last 25 years by The New York Times. Author McCarthy says that his writings are influenced by the famous works of prominent authors like Dante, Mark Twain, Faulkner, Joseph Conrad, Samuel Beckett, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, James Joyce, Melville, John Steinbeck, etc. He is particularly famous for his stylistically complex way of writing his novels. Author McCarthy was born on July 20, 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island. He was named Charles McCarthy Jr., and was the eldest among his 6 siblings. He later changed his first name to Cormac, named after a famous Irish King. In the year 1937, McCarthy’s family shifted to Knoxville, Tennessee, where he completed his high school studies. After that, he joined the University of Tennessee, but left in it between in the year 1953 in order to join the United States Air Force.

McCarthy went on to serve for a period of 4 years in the Air Force. He returned back to the University of Tennessee in the year 1957 and published a couple of notable stories in the student literary magazine. These two stories became a hot topic to be talked about by everyone in the entire university and helped author McCarthy to pursue an illustrious career as an author. He was motivated by winning the Ingram-Merrill Award at the university in the years 1959 and 1960 for creative writing. Author McCarthy moved to Chicago in the early 1960s and began working on his first novel. Meanwhile, he married one of his fellow students at the university named Lee Holleman and became the father of a son named Cullen. He got separated from her later and then married for two more times in the years 1966 and 1998 with Anne DeLisle and Jennifer Winkler respectively. The first book written by author McCarthy was titled The Orchard Keeper and was published in the year 1965 to mixed reviews. However, he won William Faulkner Award which helped him to win a traveling fellowship the Academy of Arts and Letters. While traveling to Europe, McCarthy met Anne DeLisle and two continued to travel throughout the continent for a period of two years. During this time, author McCarthy published 3 novels, which helped him to become one of the literary heavyweights of that time. Besides winning the Pulitzer Prize for his great literary works, Cormac McCarthy had also won grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship. In the year 2009, he won the Saul Bellow/PEN Award, which was given to him by the PEN American Center for his lifetime achievement in the field of English literature.

One of the initial novels written by author written by author Cormac McCarthy was published under the title ‘No Country for Old Men’. It was released by the Vintage publishing house in the year 2005. The plot of this novel is set in Terrell County, Texas, United States, and revolves around the lives of the primary characters named Llewellyn Moss, Carla Jean Moss, Ed Tom Bell, Anton Chigurh, and Dead Dawg. In this novel, author McCarthy has described the drug trafficking activities at the Texas-Mexico border, due to which the small towns have turned into free-fire zones and have been crowded with drug runners. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Llewellyn Moss is shown as finding a pickup truck surrounded by dead bodies of the guards. He discovers two million dollars and loads of heroin from the back of the truck. He decides to take the money after which a series of catastrophic violence are started which do not seem to be contained by the disillusioned and aging Sheriff Bell. Over the course of the plot of the novel, Moss continues to evade the pursuers, particularly a mysterious man who is known to flip coins for the human lives. The novel proved to be a triumph for author McCarthy, who did an excellent job in describing the American crime related to drug trafficking. The success of the novel allowed it to win the Hammett Prize nomination, the Falcon Award, and an Audie Award. It was also adapted into a movie of the same name in the year 2007, which also became a huge hit just like the novel.

One of the other initial novels written by author Cormac McCarthy was published under the title ‘The Sunset Limited’. It was released by the Vintage publishing house in the year 2006. The plot of this novel revolves around a startling encounter between two strangers at the New York subway platform. This leads the two of them to a tenement of rundown that forces them to make a decision for life or death. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, two men known as Black and White are shown as having a conversation in a small apartment. It leads them to their own history. Later, White is described to be a professor living in despair while Black is shown to be an ex-addict and an ex-con. He seems to be more hopeful of the people in his life, but is as desperate to convince the strength of faith to White as he is desperate not to get convinced. The only aim in life of the two men is to discover the true meaning of their lives. In the end, the novel proved to be deft, full of artistic tension, and spare. It depicted the beautifully crafted, deceptively intimate, and thought-provoking work of author McCarthy, which helped him to become one of the most insightful authors of his time.

Rather than announce an upcoming book, we're paying tribute to our most popular author of the year from a survey we did. That author is Louise Penny, who writes the Inspector Gamache books. Trust me when I say this - this is a tremendous serious about a Chief Inspector in Quebec. Buy it for yourself, buy it as a gift - but get the first book in the series, Still Life and see why it's our most popular book series. Read more about it.

Recommendations

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Featured Series

Our character of the month is Inspector Armand Gamache. We know people are looking for gifts for others this time of year - so make it easy. Get someone hooked on our most popular series! Seriously I don't mean to beat a dead horse but try this series out!

Featured Author

Our author of the month is the Canadian author Louise Penny We’re paying tribute to Louise this month. Her Gamache series is simply incredible and each book just gets better. If you haven’t read it yet – start now!

Did You Know…

After graduating from Leesville Road High School in Raleigh in 1999, Andrew Britton joined the U.S. Army as a combat engineer. He stayed in the Army for three years and served in Korea.